A fully explicit text would not oly be very long and boring, but it would destroy the reader's pleasure in imposing meaning on the text - making it their own.
Oakhill, Cain, & Yuill (1998, p. 347)

What is Comprehension?

A basic definition of comprehension is to understand what one reads. Comprehension is much more than mere understanding, but rather it is a constructing of meaning, with each reader bringing different schema and knowledge when reading the text. There are many different cognitive processes which are in play as a reader comprehends the text.


Monitoring for Understanding
  • Background Knowledge Warm-Up - The student will use background knowelge to comprehend text
  • Anticipation Sort - The student will use background knowledge to comprehend text
  • Precise Predictions - The student will use predictions to comprehend text
  • Read and Ask - The student will answer questions to comprehend text
  • Question Quest - The student answer question to comprehend text
  • Ask and Answer - The student will generate and answer question to comprehend text
  • Simple Summary - The student will summarize text
  • Sum Summary! - The student will summarize text
  • Strategic Strategies - The student will use multiple strategies to comprehend text
  • Reading Repair - The student will use multiple strategies to comprehend text
  • Show-U-Know - The student will use multiple strategies to comprehend text
Fix-Up Skills - A Classroom Toolkit
  • A series of fix-up strategies that can help struggling students to better understand difficult reading assignments.
"Click or Clunk" - A Student Comprehension Self-Check
  • When students encounter problems with vocabulary or comprehension, they use a checklist to apply simple strategies to solve those reading difficulties.